The Heel Turn That ENDED The Attitude Era (This Week In History Pt 2) 

That Micheals/Jericho Doink story had me dying.

0:00 WrestleMania XI 2:27 Diesel vs Shawn Michaels 5:17 WrestleMania 12 • OJ plans did not go through • HHH Squashed • Ironman Match 13:11 The night after WM12, Mankind debuts 14:32 WrestleMania 14 • Steve Austin 17:22 • Sable • Undertaker 19:32 The Triple DX Debut, The Attitude Era Belt Introduced 22:55 WrestleMania 2000 (16) 25:50 WrestleMania 17: Shaking Hands With Vince McMahon

One of the best comments I remember from WM 12 was The King telling McMahon on commentary that during the weigh-in for the Warrrior/HHH match, Warrior stepped on the scale and it said “To Be Continued...”

That Ironman match at wrestlemania 12 was awesome

I’m still looking to eventually get that custom Bret Hart Winged Eagle replica belt at some point.

Mania X-Seven was the peak. That was the peak of wrestling. At least here in the States. Wrestling would NEVER reach this level of popularity again.

Saddest day in wrestling for me....I remember I was legit pissed that Austin sided with Vince lol and they tried to turn him into a cowardly heel before he started the comedic stuff and WHAT chants

🎶You think you're special... You do...🎶

Thank you for these Jason. Listening to it while at work.

It is crazy that the Iron Man match was 25 years ago because it really only feels like maybe 12 years ago. But then if a think about matches that happened in 83 or anytime in the early 80s or late 70s that feels like 60 years ago. Can you imagine how we would’ve felt if they would’ve brought him back wrestlers from the 60s and 70s in the early 90s? That shows you the big difference between wrestling today and wrestling back then. They would have never have brought a guy in from that long ago but nowadays everyone clings to stars from the 80s and 90s.

The winged Eagle belt and WCW’s/NWA Big Gold will always be the most important world titles.

I don't want to hear anybody blame this awful decision on Vince. Pretty much everyone was begging Austin not to go through with it, be he was adamant about turning heel. As an artist, I can understand why Austin wanted to try his hand as a main event heel: you feel this creative itch to try something new after doing the same thing for so long. But Austin forgot the most important rule of wrestling: give the audience what they want! NOBODY wanted to see Austin as a heel! When he turned heel, we were shocked, but we weren't intrigued. A LOT of people just said "fuck this" and gave up watching wrestling when Austin turned. The Invasion was definitely the bigger creative blunder, but I argue that Austin turning heel had a bigger detrimental economic effect on WWE than the Invasion did.

So HBK yelled at everyone else except Mike Tyson.

LMAO "How bout Paul Bearer?" FLOOOOOSH

The ironman match is still my favorite match. That match is the essence of pro wrestling for me.

From a certain point of view, I could see why Austin would want and accept Vince’s help to beat The Rock, because Rock in ‘01 is on a completely different level from Rock in ‘99. By ‘01, Rock had already long since proved himself as a top guy, main event star, headline attraction, and that he was more than capable of being the #1 babyface to the point where whatever doubts or reservations some people may have had about The Rock in that role in ‘99 were *LONG* since destroyed by ‘01. Meanwhile, you have Austin, who had just come back from career-threatening neck surgery and had *JUST LOST* a 3 Stages of Hell match to Triple H on the same show The Rock beat Kurt Angle to win the championship. So, on one hand, you have The Rock, who is on top of his game, hitting every stride, in the middle of his prime, and every bit as big of a star as Austin was - to the point where some could even argue that he was a bigger star than Austin by this point. And on the other hand, you have Austin, fresh off neck surgery and losing to Triple H, now beginning to doubt himself. He’s not sure if he really has what it takes this time to beat *this* version of The Rock. And that played into their match as it was happening. Every time Austin would hit a huge move: Chairshots, Ring Bells, Sharpshooters, Rock Bottoms, Stone Cold Stunners. Etc. And every single time The Rock would kick out, Austin would get more and more desperate each time. “I *need* to beat you, Rock! I need it more than anything you can ever imagine!” Now here he is, hitting The Rock with everything but the kitchen sink, and The Rock just won’t stay down! No matter what he tries, he just cannot beat this motherfucker! So when Vince comes in to offer his help, of course Austin is going to take it! To hell with the rivalry, to hell with the history, to hell with what he thinks of Vince. Desperate times call for desperate measures! He *HAS* to beat The Rock! He *HAS* to become Champion! No matter what it takes! And if this is what it takes, then so be it! I agree, turning Austin heel, especially in Texas, was a stupid decision. And eventually, so did Austin. But I could see why Austin would feel the need to side with Vince. But it would’ve made more sense for him to just stun Vince right after: “I got what I wanted. Fuck you, here’s my ‘thank you’ present.” Kick, Wham, Stunner. And that’s how you end WrestleMania. But if it were up to me, I’d have just had Austin win straight up. He pulls it off in the end by the skin of his teeth. Rock and Austin shake hands in the ring, Rock leaves the ring as Austin celebrates in Texas in front of 65,000 people. Rock leaves to do his movie, and Austin goes on his long title run as a Babyface.

Yep, our cable went out at the same time here in Indiana. Came back on as Bret had Backlund in the crossface.

X-Seven might be the symbolic end but for me personally the Attitude era didn't die until Vince's Ruthless Aggression promo

Anybody who thinks Warrior should've gone 50/50 with "Hunter Hearst Helmsley" at WM12 is a fool. HHH was pulling the politicking BS he'd pull off successfully with Steiner and Goldberg years later. Warrior actually had the sense to say "Fuck you". And he was right to do so.

Austin turning heel didn't end the attitude era, it was the botched invasion angle. Turning austin heel, then face to join team WWF, then turning heel again to join the alliance fcuked up everything

I never understood the hatred towards Austin turning heel and aligning with Vince. The Austin vs McMahon thing was worn out and needed to go a different direction. I never even thought of Stone Cold as a baby face because he only did stuff to further himself. You can’t trust a rattlesnake!

April 2, 2001 - March 17, 2002 The final full Calendar Year for the World Wrestling Federation. The Invasion Era and the unofficial beginning of the Ruthless Aggression Era, November 19, 2001. The announcement would come later in June 2002.

And WWE has yet to recover from it even 20 years later...there’s plenty of things that led us to this point but that heel turn got the ball rolling. I know for a fact that a lot of people I knew were die hard wrestling fans stopped watching after 2001.

Hawk may have been a wildman,but he was no dummy

Piper Vs OJ Simpson people in the building would have rioted if that match happened

The Heel turn at Mania 17 was a big deal at the time. The Rock kept kicking out and it made him look great in defeat and I was really emotionally invested in the match. After the turn they ended up doing all this comedy shit tho. I like the turn tho because holy shit he's aligning with the guy who hates more than anyone because he's so desperate to be the champ he needed like he needed to breathe

Concerning WrestleMania XI, when Bret Hart has the worst match on the show, you know it has to be a terrible show.

I always said man as a kid I would’ve loved the wwe network I used to not be able to get enough wrestling lol mondays and thursdays weren’t good enough for me lol we should’ve had 3 hours back then lol that’s when the product kept u wanting more

My top 10 Worst WrestleManias: 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 27

6 months after the trial and they tried to book OJ Simpson at WM....talk about nuclear heat....Damn!

I enjoyed Austin's heel run. I liked how he sucked up to Vince & later got jealous of Kurt Angle doing it too. He even got threatened by Torrie Wilson for hugging Vince on Smackdown. It's one of the few times I actually thought WWE was funny. But, yeah I liked Austin as a heel. It made sense. Austin just came back from a terrible neck injury. He knew his wrestling days were winding down soon. Vince wasn't ever going to be out of power. Why not just give in and take a guaranteed top spot? It's better being alligned with the guy instead of him constantly trying to end you.

If Vince was to be asked about that spot in the match with Diesel and Shawn Michaels where Diesel kicked out at one, you know Vince will put the blame on someone else. In his Vince’s mind, it’s never his fault.

Am I the only one who says 16, 17 and 18, and not 2000, X-Seven and X8?

Business in 95 was down but Vince was able to pay LT a half a million.

This was highway robbery at its wildest! The Handshake That Shook The Foundation of the World Wrestling Federation to its core. 6x World Wrestling Federation Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Vince McMahon. I had no idea that this would be the dramatic ending to the Attitude Era as we knew it. April 3, 2000 - April 1, 2001 The Greatest Fiscal Calendar in World Wrestling Federation History, hands down.

I know he wouldn't do this, or I don't see how he would do this, but what if Paul Heyman would purchase ECW back from WWE and start it all over again with new faces but with the same theme in this new age. Do you think it would be good or bad?

The heel turn that ended wrestling

Heyy, I'll be 25 this year. 5:23

The thing that didn't make sense about Austin turning heel is that he never was a babyface in the traditional sense to begin with, he was a rebel that always broke the rules to balance Mr McMahon trying to put roadbloacks on his way since he didn't have the corporate attitude to be a champion, that's why them aligning was always a failure because Austin never once needed McMahon to be world champion and he already beat Rock 2 years before when the odds were stacked against him

Stone colds heel turn was great, I really enjoyed it myself, thought he was a fantastic heel and this era was still wayyyyyyyy better than the complete bullshit crap we have now. No traitor here Austin, fan of the heel stone cold

Bad idea? Absolutely not. The idea that Stone Cold sold his sole to Vince McMahon actually is brilliant because it’s so shocking. The problem is the execution. Whilst heel 2001 Austin was brilliant it doesn’t make sense for him to be all friendly with Vince McMahon. If they just had Steve Austin say “I’m with Vince so he can help me keep what’s most important to me and that’s the World Wrestling Federation championship” then that’s fine because it doesn’t insult you by making you feel like you wasted your time watching these two hating each other for so long. Also, he needed a too baby face to feud with. If Shane as the baby face brought in Sting or Goldberg the night after WrestleMaina to stop Austin but then the storyline is more WCW guys are invading and manipulating Shane McMahon and all of a sudden it’s WWF vs WCW and that’s when Austin turns baby face because he realises the company he is representing needs him and then all of a sudden it all works. The idea was perfect, the execution was poor. EDIT: or how about you just don’t turn him heel and have him feud with Kurt Angle for the title with Austin as the baby face and Angle as the heel. That would have made perfect sense post WrestleMaina 17

You are forgetting that Triple H getting squashed by the Ultimate Warrior was his punishment for his part in the Curtain Call incident.

sounds sarcastic when you say "total pros. only took them 3 hour to put together a 61 minute match"

Well Shawn stabbed Marty in the back did Nash really think he wouldn't do the same to him and they'd been friends longer

Can anybody here explain a non-native speaker that whole Mankind gimmick? I don't get it, a wrestler calls himself Mankind. Why? Weirdest name ever.

Sidebar... Ruthless Aggression Era for me will always be Jan. 1st 2002 - Dec 14th 2008 (Where Jeff Hardy wins the WWE Title)

The Attitude Era didnt "END" here. The Attitude Era ended the following year when WWE made a decision that effected all programming with the brand split....Attitude Era wasnt "just Stone Cold". So NO, the Attitude Era didnt END, "just cos Stone Cold turned heel".

Actually @solomoster Austin heels turn wasn't the end of the attitude era, it ended in 2003 when Austin retired and the Rock left

I still think that the match with LT and Bam Bam wasn't as bad as people say it it is, and is still no where near the as bad as Wm 9

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